Announcing the 2014 Revisioning Sustainability Conference

For the past two years, UMass Dining and UMass Permaculture have held the enormously successful Permaculture Your Campus Conference here at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

This year, these same two sponsoring organizations have since re-branded the event as the Revisioning Sustainability Conference, which has been developed from the ground up utilizing best practices from previous years, as well as expanding the scope of this year's conference to take more holistic approach to sustainability. Please visit our website for more information and stay tuned for updates!

The 2013 UMass Amherst Permaculture Your Campus Conference Has Come to a Close!

The UMass Permaculture Initiative would like to thank all of our generous sponsors, for without their help we would not have been able to host such a successful conference. We also want to thank all of the students, professors, faculty, and staff who participated in the conference, for bringing inspiring ideas to share and spreading the word of permaculture through their own campus projects.

We hope that all of our attendees can say that they gained a unique Permaculture Toolkit in the four days spent at the Permaculture Your Campus Conference, and that they plan to use their new skills to benefit future goals in their own permaculture gardens.

A look back at the "UMass Permaculture Your Campus Conference 2013" !

The UMass Permaculture Initiative is happy to announce that the 2nd Annual UMass Permaculture Your Campus Conference ended on an extremely positive and successful note. After four days of collaboration within a group of 100 national and international attendees we accumulated a huge deal of permaculture discussion, and touched on an immense variety of talking points.

Majora Carter kicked off the first day of the conference with her address "Home(Town) Security". This public event drew people from the local Amherst Community, as well as conference attendees to the UMass Campus Center Auditorium where Majora introduced the conference to her work creatingSustainable South Bronx. Her leadership with several green infrastructure projects in urban NYC is reflective of many of the the principles of permaculture, and an involved question and answer session followed her speech.

The Conference continued with plenty of other inspring guest speakers. From local food advocate Arlin Wasserman to Author and permaculture specialist Eric Toensmeier, Permaculture was the topic of discussion day and night at PYCC 2013. Indoor and outdoor workshops and lectures that transitioned to actual design sessions and implementation in our gardens were a highlight of the conference. We are already talking about the 2014 conference, and can't wait to get the ball rolling on another amazing melting pot of diverse permaculture ideas.

Highlights from the Permaculture Your Campus Conference 2013

One of our highlights from the 2013 Conference was our outdoor track that brought attendees to the Hillside Permaculture Garden, our newly implemented permaculture site. At Hillside Permaculture Garden, Permaculture Specialist and author Jonathan Bates gave an informative design workshop and explained some basics on soil health and design processes. We eventually worked to implement two new beds. We sheet mulched, made paths from wood chips, put down straw and planted! Attendees were able to gain skills in designing garden beds, and then directly gain hands-on experience by getting their hands dirty and putting perennials in the ground. It was a great educational take-away for anyone who attended.